Gospel starts to strike a chord in Brazil, the home of bossa nova

Evangelical Christians' music is gaining ground in Brazil, with major TV channel screening gospel festival at Christmas

Regis Danese, one of Brazil's top gospel artists, being interviewed after his show at the Festival Promessas – the first evangelical music show to be shown by traditionally Catholic broadcaster Globo. Photograph: Douglas Engle/Australfoto

It was an unconventional start to a rock concert: an explosion of fluorescent lights, a deafening drum roll and, finally, an extract from Psalm 91. "A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not come nigh thee."

Biblical citations over, a singer wearing giant blue earrings and a garish purple tunic swept out on to centre stage, sending thousands of fans pogoing into the air.

But it was a mosh pit with a difference – for this was the Festival Promessas, a beachside showcase of some of Brazil's best-known gospel bands and, more importantly, the first evangelical show to be broadcast by the Brazilian media giant Rede Globo.

Backstage, Regis Danese, one of the country's top gospel artists, grinned cheek to cheek. "Today is a historic day for Brazilian gospel music," he said. "The people of God should praise and thank God for all this."

Brazil is known as the land of samba, bossa nova and funk. But increasingly, the artists topping the charts wield not just guitars and tambourines but also copies of the Bible. Danese's 2008 album Compromisso, which featured tracks such as Your Altar and I Want to Thank You, sold more than one million copies and was nominated for a Grammy.

Female singers such as Aline Barros and Fernanda Brum regularly lock horns with global stars such as Britney Spears and Justin Bieber in the Brazilian charts – and often come out on top.

Hoping for a slice of the gospel market, reportedly worth around R$1.5bn (£500m) last year, several major labels, including Sony, have opened gospel imprints.

"We are moving into the secular world and this is priceless for us," said Marina de Oliveira, a Grammy-winning gospel singer who believes the genre's advance into the mainstream will help her not only sell records but also spread the Bible's message. "This is marvellous, fantastic. Our ability to transmit the word of God will grow absurdly."

Oliveira used a Brazilian saying to capture her feelings about the latest conquests of a movement she has been pushing for the last 25 years: "Constant dripping wears away the hardest stone."

Gospel music is still far from universally admired. While most department stores stock evangelical records, detractors abound. Music writers from Brazil's main newspapers largely shun records by the country's gospel singers.

"It's prejudice," said Arolde de Oliveira, a Brazilian MP and the president of MK Music, which he describes as the largest gospel label in Latin America. "There has always been prejudice, because we have been a Catholic country ever since the very first mass that was celebrated when they discovered Brazil [over] 500 years ago."

Even so, the Festival Promessas, which received prominent coverage on Globo's news programmes, represented a breakthrough. Held near Rio's Flamengo beach, it became a one-hour Christmas special despite Rede Globo being traditionally viewed by Brazilians as a Catholic channel.

Oliveira said attitudes towards gospel music were changing as the evangelical movement grew. "These are people who don't just consume evangelical products. They use toilet paper, toothpaste, washing machines, cars – perhaps not Rolls-Royces, but I like a little Mercedes, a BMW maybe. They consume everything.

"Initially [Brazil's] evangelical population was confined to the bottom of the social pyramid," he added during an interview at his company's HQ in Rio, where visitors are welcomed by a silver metal sign above the entrance which reads: "Nothing is impossible for he who believes."

"But with time they have risen … and today this segment of 60 million people directly or indirectly linked to the church … represents a [significant] portion of the social pyramid. It is a big market."

Much of the explanation for the success of Brazil's gospel music lies in its target audience: an ever-growing flock of Christians seeking spiritual enlightenment as well as catchy tunes. The gospel market is also largely immune from piracy. For spiritual and moral reasons, evangelical Christians largely refused to buy fake CDs and DVDs or illegally download music, Marina de Oliveira explained. "This helps us a lot."

Asked why non-religious record labels were now releasing gospel records, Oliveira, who recorded her first evangelical LP in 1986, was blunt. "They know that the record business in the secular community will die long before ours so they are trying to suck the last little bit of juice from the cup."

For the artists on show at Festival Promessas, the event was not just about selling records. It was also a chance to proselytise. "It's very important," Danese, whose track Faz um Milagre em Mim (roughly Show me a Miracle) has become a nationwide anthem for the gospel movement, told the Guardian. "Secular radios are playing our music. Important [secular] Brazilian newspapers and magazines, all of them, [are writing about our music]. And now Rede Globo has embraced this project. The [channel's] directors are doing their best, and we must all do our best for Jesus." Paraphrasing from the Book of Isaiah he added: "The word of God does not return empty."

Despite the festival's unmistakably religious tone, Rede Globo denied it was promoting religious ideas or attempting to win over new evangelical viewers. "Globo is not putting on an evangelical event, it is documenting a festival of gospel music," said Luiz Gleizer, director of Globo TV. "Globo cannot ignore something that has taken on the proportions of gospel music in Brazil," he added, pointing out that the channel had "perceived the progressive importance of gospel music in Brazil's cultural life."

The channel reached out to "all social classes and all demographics", he said, claiming that the event reaffirmed Globo's secularity. "Globo is not a Catholic channel – it is a secular, lay and republican channel."

Such distinctions were lost on the nine artists who performed at the Saturday afternoon event, which drew tens of thousands of fans, many with pink "100% Jesus" bandanas strapped to their heads or wearing "I've had a meeting with Jesus" T-shirts.

"A believer who just stays at church preaching to other believers is no good," said Danese, clad in a bright red PVC jacket and white jeans. "Jesus preached to sinners, he spoke to prostitutes … We need to stop talking nonsense and preach the word of God, talk about Jesus. We need to preach the word to our neighbours, at work … you have to make the difference."

Emerging from his dressing room, Danese – a country singer before his conversion – was surrounded by a posse of journalists and photographers, mostly from Christian radio stations and magazines. They bombarded him with questions about his faith.

"Did you hear the voice of God?" "What did he say?" "How have you been able to touch Catholics and members of other religions with your music?"

At each answer, one reporter, from a magazine called New Jerusalem, responded with an enthusiastic nod and the refrain: "Amen. Glory be to God."

As the eight-hour concert rolled on, teary-eyed believers packed before the stage, staring into the cloudy skies and giving thanks to their lord. "Thank you my father. Thank you my lord."

Above the crowd a white banner, carrying a phrase from Corinthians, chapter 14, verse 15, fluttered in the wind. "What am I to do? I will pray with my spirit, but I will pray with my mind also. I will sing praise with my spirit, but I will sing with my mind also," it read.